Two old elephants, one Asian and one African, who have spent their entire lives in captivity at Giza Zoo, are forced to live on a short chain.

According to the information received from zoo director and Dr. Maha, senior vet of the zoo, both elephants, the Asian and the African, are over 60 years old, which is a considerable age for captive elephants, and they could both die anytime soon. According to them, they have arrived at the same time at the zoo as Karima, the elephant who died at Alexandria zoo in January 2012, at the age of 63.

When searching the internet for information about the age of these elephants, we have found the following pages and according to them, both elephants are significantly younger than stated by the zoo officials.

Whatever their age, we believe that these animals deserve to have basic rights and basic care, like adequate nutrition and a night enclosure; that they should be allowed to live out the rest of their days unchained and to walk on sand instead of concrete 24/7 and they should also be allowed to forage.

They have served the zoo and the visitors all their lives suffering from loneliness, isolation and boredom in an area that is a mere fraction of what they would have had in their natural habitat and they have been forced to live chained up for the major part of their lives to a short chain.

Elephants are biologically and behaviorally made for walking, foraging and inhabiting large and varied environments, in the company of a socially complex family group.

In the wild, elephants walk considerable distances every day. In captivity, they should ideally be provided with enclosures measuring in the tens or hundreds of acres. A simple rule of thumb when considering space for elephants is "the bigger, the better." There is no upper limit.

A typical elephant home range is roughly 80 kilometers (50 miles) by 32 kilometers (20 miles) wide. That is about 640,000 acres.

How big is that? Think of a football field (including the end zones). With this spatial scale in mind, a typical zoo enclosure would be the size of two regular paperback books placed in the middle of the football field, with the elephants being the size of ants. Most captive elephant enclosures are less than 1 acre in size (with larger zoo enclosures being only around 5 acres); these do not provide much space when compared with wild home ranges.

And here, at Giza Zoo, we are speaking of a lifetime spent at the end of a short chain!

Please help us change this situation for these two grand old ladies.

By signing our petition, the message that you can read under the tab 'Petition Letter' will be sent instantly to the director at Giza zoo as well as to the Egyptian General Organization of Veterinary Services and the Technical Office of GOVS.

We thank you in advance for lending these poor elephants your voice and we kindly ask you to sign also the following, important petitions in the same context:

I just signed the following petition addressed to: Giza zoo, with copy to the Egyptian General Organization of Veterinary Service and the Technical Office of GOVS----------------

Giza zoo: Unchain the elephants!

Dear Madam,

We believe that after years of service and a life in captivity, it's time to ensure that the two elephants at Giza Zoo are allowed to enjoy their old age in comfort.

They have served the zoo and the visitors all their lives, despite the loneliness, isolation and stereotyped behavior they have suffered from being forced to live the major part of their time at the end of a short chain.

We ask that both the elephants (Asian and African) be allowed to live out the rest of their days unchained, and provided with a night enclosure. We also ask to have a sand substrate put down on the ground so that they are no longer constantly walking on concrete 24/7.

Furthermore, we ask that they be allowed to forage, and that the quality and quantity of their dietary nutrition be increased.

These poor animals have had long, hard lives and it is high time that they are properly cared for.

We urge you to implement the necessary measures to ensure that these two old ladies will be able to live out the rest of their lives chain-free, albeit in their tiny enclosures, and that they receive the care and attention that older animals need.

It is sad enough that we even need to ask that such obvious modifications should be made, and we expect that the necessary measures will be taken shortly.

We will be following this case with great interest and we thank you in advance for your compassion towards these elephants and the other animals under your care.